Chapter 36: Overdue Assets

How Kaitou Kid managed to set up street cameras in every blind spot in Ebisu overnight, unnoticed, Shinichi wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know. But there he was: checking his computer before school, and a new add-on program somehow already in place with a typed message from Kid himself explaining that the add-on footage worked the same way the initial program did. He'd even integrated it for smoother operation.

The postscript merely asked him to skip a few more heists than planned. He had an inkling that meant Hakuba was spending more time in Japan. His phone buzzed.

Heiji was on his way over already, and would arrive while Shinichi was still in class. Lucky him. He texted as much and put his phone away before he could receive a reply, and went in search of the other him. They bumped into each other in the hallway, and stared for a few moments before Shinichi broke the silence.

"The camera add-ons are up already," he said, causing his clone's eyebrows to shoot up.

"Kid works fast," he said, voice laced in something like respect. Shinichi could only nod in agreement.

"Also, Hattori will be here before I get back," he continued. "If you wanted to keep looking at the footage, then ask him to go back over the case notes—I've added a few he hasn't seen, yet." Not-Shinichi resolutely nodded, and Shinichi left to wait for the Detective Boys next door.

He was greeted by an especially exhausted-looking Haibara. Behind her, the professor didn't look much better. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"You guys look awful." It was hypocritical of him to say, knowing he looked just as bad, but he couldn't help it. Agasa let out a jaw-cracking yawn before giving a reply.

"We spent all night isolating the brain anomalies," he said. "I'm working on a simulator to run the scans through." Shinichi perked up in hopeful interest.

"Don't expect too much," cautioned Haibara after glimpsing his expression. "We're going to need to run a few more tests on both you and the other Kudo-kun to make absolutely sure we're not missing anything." Shinichi nodded fervently. She held up a warning finger. "This also doesn't mean we can get Ran-san back yet. At the very least, this should eliminate a few of the theories we've been working with. If the professor can get the simulator working, that is."

Shinichi nodded again, more hesitantly as he deflated. It was a step in the right direction, at least.

The children arrived before more could be discussed, and they headed to the school with Shinichi feeling slightly more optimistic than he had been lately. He walked behind the kids, taking up the rear and absently listening as they chattered on about one thing or another. Haibara slowed to walk beside Shinichi. She was silent for a few minutes before addressing him.

"In the interest of saving time," she whispered, expression carefully neutral, "I've asked Agasa Hakase to run the first tests with the other you." She paused, listening to the budding shouting match between Genta and Mitsuhiko about… carrots? "If you can't do it today after school, we can test you tomorrow, but... Well, the sooner the better."

Shinichi nodded agreeably, watching Ayumi attempt to mitigate the fight. About carrots. He hadn't heard that wrong. "We'll try to get it done today," he said. "Provided no interruptions happen first."

With that, the conversation was over, and the two shrunken teens found themselves jogging up to the rest of their group in an attempt to diffuse the shouting match before arriving on school grounds.

The school day was mostly uneventful, and Shinichi's peace was only interrupted once, at lunch. Heiji had just arrived, only to find himself locked out of the Kudo Mansion. He demanded to know where everyone was.

If Subaru's not there, then he's either on campus or grocery shopping, he informed.

And the other Kudo?

Next door. Agasa is testing something—I didn't realize it would take so long, sorry.

He put his phone away after getting confirmation, then turned his mind to pondering his clone's current isolated position.

… He had no way to contact anyone unless he bothered with the landline—which he wouldn't, simply to avoid getting on their parents' radar. He blinked.

Ran had been similarly isolated… Not that she would have called anyone given the chance, but the chance should've been available in the first place.

He pressed his lips into a tight, thin line, resolved to rectify that the moment he got home.

It was an excruciatingly long day.

The children must have sensed his mood, because they mostly left him alone, only sending worried glances his way after class let out. He might have felt bad for neglecting them if the guilt from his earlier realization wasn't weighing so heavily on him.

"Kudo-kun?" prompted Haibara once they were alone. He shook his head.

"Just need to take care of something," he muttered. She dropped the issue, but kept sending him mildly curious glances all the way home.

The moment he got his shoes off, he set off through the house on a mission, marching up the stairs until he stopped in front of his room. Peering inside revealed Agasa had finished whatever he'd needed the clone for. Heiji was seated on the bed, all of their notes spread out on the blanket if front of him.

Before he could lose his nerve, Shinichi purposefully strode over to the computer as his hand curled around his own phone in his pocket. It took only half a moment for his clone to notice him and turn his attention to him. Steeling himself, Shinichi pulled the phone from its prison and held it out to the other him. "Here."

Sharp eyes lit up in recognition at the phone being presented to him, followed by his eyebrows disappearing up into his bangs. His gaze flicked to Shinichi's face, eyes narrowed.

"… Why?" he asked, even as he gingerly took the phone. You made it very clear I shouldn't be here, was left unsaid. Shinichi heard it anyway.

"Just in case," he answered, knowing the other him could hear the subtext. Just in case Kudo Shinichi is needed. Just in case you need something, and no one is around to help.

Shinichi was allowing Kudo Shinichi to exist with Edogawa Conan present. The other Shinichi's eyes grew wide. A throat cleared behind them.

"… Do you guys have any idea how creepy that is?"

XxX

It didn't take very long for Shinichi to inform Heiji, Haibara, and Agasa to contact him through Conan's number since he gave his 'Shinichi phone' to his clone. He hadn't needed to bother Subaru, since the man only had Conan's number—if he needed to call the other Shinichi for whatever reason, he could take it up with the clone himself.

Heiji, who had actually witnessed the exchange, merely shrugged, unbothered. Agasa looked worried, but Haibara seemed… angry.

"Do you have any idea how risky that is?" she hissed as she dragged him to the lab. Since he was already there, running the tests she needed was convenient for them.

"Risky?"

"It'll be too suspicious if he uses that phone for your correspondence," she seethed as she strapped him into a new machine. He scoffed.

"He's not going to use it any more than I do—it'll actually be less suspicious, since he doesn't have to hide himself to answer the phone." She gave him an incredulous look. He rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to deny that I'd use it more often if I wasn't Conan—you know that. This is different, and he knows that."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he's me."

She searched his face, met only with his conviction, and nodded.

"… I'll believe you for now," she said, voice still tight with mistrust. Shinichi tried to look smug, but a weak grimace was all he could really manage. Conversation was stilted after that, which was for the best as he was instructed not to move for the duration of the testing.

He wasn't entirely sure what they were looking for, but it seemed like it would take just as long as his clone. Several hours in, Heiji came in and quietly observed, rhythmically tapping his foot on the floor or fiddling with his jacket zipper as he waited. Shinichi was just glad at not having to engage in conversation, and just let his mind wander for the rest of the testing.

By the time they were done, the sun had long since set and all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep forever. The only reason he didn't do that was for the simple fact that Ran wouldn't benefit form that sort of absence. He couldn't help get her back if he was sleeping, nor would he be able to help get her back in her own skin. But damn, if it wasn't tempting to just close his eyes and sleep the stress away.

As if sleeping ever helped his emotional state before.

Distantly, he was vaguely aware those were the symptoms of acute depression, but he steadfastly shoved the trivia down. He didn't have time to deal with it.

Something must have shown on his face, because Heiji grabbed the back of his shirt just before he got to Agasa's front door.

"We're eatin' out fer supper," he said in a firm voice. Shinichi blinked tiredly up at him and saw grim determination and a defense for his choice at the ready, showcased by the stubborn set in his jaw and glint in his eyes. Shinichi sighed and, with a shrug, said,

"Okay."

Heiji spluttered, not expecting Shinichi's agreeable response. Shinichi would have laughed at him if he didn't feel so terrible. As it was, he settled on a tired smirk and walked out first, the Osakan teen stumbling after him.

"Just like that?" he asked incredulously, still not quite believing Shinichi, who merely shrugged again.

"I mean, our options are limited this late, but okay."

Undeterred, Heiji just grinned.

"Saw y'all got a Welcome Burger nearby—they should still be open." Shinichi offered a small half-smile.

He didn't have the heart to tell him he couldn't even stomach the thought of greasy food. At least one of them needed to be some degree of happy.

That was how he found himself shoved into a corner booth at the blessedly empty fast-food place, listening to the larger teen chatter away about anything and everything that crossed his mind, really. He did notice a good chunk of it was dedicated to the recent cases the teen worked on in his home city.

He nibbled absent-mindedly on the apple slices from the kid's meal he'd insisted on, despite his friend's confused concern. It was still a waste of food, considering the ever-present nausea, but there was less food in a kid's meal to waste. The apples, at least, weren't greasy.

If Heiji noticed him pushing the burger and fries away, he said nothing in favor of giving life updates from Osaka.

If Heiji ate said burger and fries himself, Shinichi said nothing, either.

Just to have something to do with his hands (and maybe a little to keep up appearances), he opened the toy that came with his meal—some kind of car, he wasn't really looking—and began spinning the wheels with his fingers.

When Heiji finally ran out of things to say, they sat in amicable silence. Shinichi switched to rolling the car back and forth on the table, resting his chin in his free hand. It was all so painfully normal in the face of the current situation.

"So," began Heiji after looking around to confirm their solitude, "what d'ya think the little neechan will find with those brain scans?"

"Nothing, probably," sighed Shinichi as he leaned over to rest his cheek in his arm on the table. The little car rolled forward and backward, his other hand still keeping up the repetitive motion. "At least nothing they can use without the simulation program the professor is working on. Theoretically, they should be able to plug in Haibara's scans to start… er… eliminating theories, I guess." He sighed again. "He's having some trouble coding it, though, so I don't really know when they can start."

Heiji sat back with a thoughtful hum, fingers drumming rhythmically on the table.

"It's still progress," he pointed out after a while. "That, plus the new cams and everythin', I'd say things're lookin' up." A small smile tugged at the corner of Shinichi's mouth.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess they are."

Heiji offered up a reassuring grin. He got up to throw the trash away, and they headed back. Shinichi felt a little more stable, emotionally, even if he didn't think he could bring himself to look at the footage until tomorrow. Things would be okay.

XxX

Shinichi woke up Saturday morning feeling more rested than he had since before the other Shinichi came home from the hospital, even though technically his waking was a rude one.

Heiji had, for reasons known only to him, decided that the best way to wake him up was to take a running leap into Shinichi's bed, successfully knocking him loose from his comfortable sleeping position. Shinichi sent him a scathing glare after shaking off the disorientation.

"What was that for?" he growled out. Heiji shrugged.

"I made coffee," he said instead of giving an explanation. Shinichi stared incredulously at him for a few seconds before giving up trying to understand his friend. He heaved a sigh and wiggled himself out of bed, making sure to send a kick to Heiji's ribs on the way down.

The unrepentant laugh made him want to kick harder, but since he was already on the floor, he settled for a glare. Coffee was a much more appealing prospect, anyway.

Shinichi's slightly improved mood somehow didn't tank when he ran into the other him in the kitchen. Nor when he saw his favorite mug already in use. He simply grabbed the mug Ran had favored—a sky blue thing decorated with birds—and filled it up with bitter morning nectar. There was a brief moment of giddy, irrational schoolboy euphoria at the mere idea of using Ran's cup that only served to boost his mood.

He blinked away the feeling when heat started creeping up his neck, thoroughly burying it in cold logic before that heat could spread to his cheeks. Soon after, Heiji came into the kitchen, none the wiser to Shinichi's lapse of control.

The other Shinichi, thankfully, was completely unaware that Ran had taken a liking to this particular mug; and as such, since Shinichi hadn't let any of those emotions slip visibly, was blissfully unaware as well.

"So," came Heiji's maddeningly chipper voice as he leaned against the island counter, "we doin' anything today besides look at camera footage?" Shinichi tilted his head, considering.

"Probably not," he conceded. He drained his cup quickly and filled it back up. "Besides the traffic footage and the new cams for the blind spots, we need to check on the hospital footage to see if Sato Miko consistently drives and, if so, track her car as well."

"Ugh—sounds boring as hell," grunted Heiji as he slumped over the countertop.

"It's necessary," said Not-Shinichi before draining his own cup. "You know that very well."

"Doesn't make it less boring, though, does it?"

Neither Shinichi deigned to respond, and the smug look on Heiji's face let them know he took it as a personal victory. Shinichi rolled his eyes and moved out of the way as his clone went to the coffee pot for another cup.

"What d'ya need me ta do?"

"Did you read the updates?"

"Yup."

"… Do you have any extra thoughts on those?" Shinichi's voice wavered, and he tried very hard not to think about how desperate he sounded.

"Not any more'n you guys've already come up with." His tone was apologetic, and Shinichi had to force his expression to remain neutral. They needed to look harder. He looked up at the other him nursing his second cup of coffee.

"Kid said the new cams were integrated into the system, but I haven't looked at it yet. Have you?" A nod. "Is it completely integrated, or can I access the files from a separate computer if it's using the same wireless network?" Not-Shinichi tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling as he recalled what he'd seen of the newest addition.

"We'd need to take a look at it, but I think you should be able to access it from elsewhere. It might take a little work, though," he said carefully. Shinichi nodded, knowing it wasn't a definite thing. But if the other him thought it was a possibility, it probably was.

"Then one of us can sift through the garage footage, one of us the traffic footage, and one of us the blind spots." He eyed the coffee pot—half empty: prime for the taking. "I don't think it really matters who looks at what, so if anyone's got a preference…?"

"I'll look at the traffic footage," volunteered the clone. Shinichi squinted up at him, and judging by the way he averted his gaze, he was probably going to be looking into more than just the cars for their current case. Not-Shinichi coughed, and quickly refilled his cup of coffee, offering a refill to Shinichi as well to get the attention off of him.

It worked, the bastard.

"I guess I can look at the garage footage…?" asked Heiji, seemingly oblivious to the exchange. "Unless you wanted ta?" Shinichi shrugged, focusing on his newly acquired refill.

"I'll need to show you who you're looking for, first, but that's fine."

"Great! That's settled, then," chirped Heiji, happily moving towards the fridge. "Whatcha got food-wise?"

"Ramen," said Shinichi flatly. "Or fruit. Take your pick." Heiji grimaced but didn't complain. He'd done worse for breakfast, Shinichi was sure.

Shinichi, himself, found some tangerines that hadn't been there the day before. Curtesy of Subaru, no doubt. He picked the smallest one he could see, and set about peeling it while he watched Heiji boil water for three-minute ramen.

It was so domestic, he wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Not-Shinichi also grabbed a tangerine, silently watching Heiji make what he proudly dubbed a "breakfast for champions." Shinichi's mood finally began to dip.

He wanted Ran back.

He wanted to hear her quietly and politely complain about the amount of food Heiji was singlehandedly able to put away.

His chest was too tight. He swallowed the feeling down with a slice of tangerine.

The sweet fruit sat bitterly in his stomach.